Dave Bakke: After surgery, man embraces different way to hunt

Wednesday

May 27, 2009 at 12:01 AMMay 27, 2009 at 4:14 AM

Billy Blackwolf Costales of Springfield was a dedicated deer hunter most of his life. But major back surgery put an end to that. There would be no more deer hunting. Costales was lucky just to be walking again. But he found a different way to pursue his hunting hobby. He became a falconer instead of, as he puts it, “whining and crying” about his health.

Dave Bakke

Billy Blackwolf Costales of Springfield was a dedicated deer hunter most of his life. But major back surgery put an end to that.

“I was paralyzed from the waist down” says Costales, a full-blooded member of the Taino tribe and a native of New York. “In 2002 I got operated on. By June of 2008, I was walking with the help of two canes, but I was about like this (twisting his torso).”

There would be no more deer hunting. Costales was lucky just to be walking again. But he found a different way to pursue his hunting hobby. He became a falconer instead of, as he puts it, “whining and crying” about his health.

“I studied, studied, studied,” he says in attempting to gain his falconer license. He passed the state-required test and became an apprentice falconer.

According to the Department of Natural Resources, about 160 Illinoisans hold falconry licenses. Most of those people live in the northern part of the state. Costales thinks there are three or four licensed falconers in the Springfield area, but he is one of the few still actively hunting.

In Illinois, a person needs to be at least 14 to get a falconer license. The state requires they have a sponsor who is already licensed at the master class level. Would-be falconers must complete an application process, which includes getting at least an 80 percent on the test. And they have to have the proper facilities and equipment to safely house their birds. Those facilities can be inspected by DNR to make sure they pass muster.

So now what? Costales had his license, but he didn’t have a falcon.

That was remedied when he trapped an immature red-tailed hawk, which is legal for licensed falconers. It was especially meaningful for Costales since a hawk is often used in Taino tribe religious ceremonies.

He brought the hawk home and trained her. He named her Slash.

“Everybody in falconry is always naming their birds Gripper or Claws or something like that,” Costales laughs.

In falconry, Costales explains, the process of training a wild hawk actually increases its ability to hunt, rather than diminishing it. He carefully trained Slash to hunt with him as a partner.

“See, their natural instinct is to think of us as enemies,” he says. “So you have to work on becoming partners, hunting together.”

Costales trained Slash to come to him and land on either his hand or on a perch that he made. The first perch he used was one of his crutches from his back surgery rehabilitation. That had a nice symbolism to it, since falconry was just another part of his rehabilitation.

In fact, the first time master falconer Jack Nuzzo saw Costales, he had his doubts.

“I mean, he was standing there with two canes,” Nuzzo recalls. “I thought, ‘This guy can’t even move!’ I remember the first time I went out and my hawk chased a rabbit -- my sponsor was yelling ‘Run! Run!’ It seems like all I did was run.

“But Costales has a passion, and you can’t get into this sport and exist in this sport without that passion. There’s no such thing as someone who dabbles in falconry. It has to become your life. There are no ‘weekend falconers.’”

Last winter was Costales and Slash’s first hunting season together. Costales keeps meticulous records each day – including smiley faces and yellow highlighter for days when Slash successfully caught game, usually a rabbit.

Starting in about November, they will hunt together for their second season. It will also be Costales’s last season as an apprentice. He hopes to move up to the general falconer level after that.

And somewhere down the road, he and Slash probably will part company.

Costales says there will come a time after Slash becomes an adult when the bird will need to go back to the wild. It will begin nesting habits and will need to find a mate. And, by then, Slash will be a much more experienced hunter and would be able to survive easily in the wild.

I asked Costales if letting Slash go would be an emotional day for him. He said it would, but added, “We’ve already talked about that,” meaning him and Slash.

“He says that now,” says Jack Nuzzo, “but I remember I had to let a bird go after we’d hunted together for six years. It was one of the saddest days of my life.”

If and when Slash goes back to the wild, Costales will go into the central Illinois fields and begin looking for another hawk to train. The process will start all over again.

And there, over in the corner of Costales’ house, will be that old crutch he converted to a perch to remind him of how this all got started.

Dave Bakke can be reached at (217) 788-1541 or dave.bakke@sj-r.com.

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